“The Philippines and Caribbean nations:
Solidarity for shared humanity”
Delivered by
HON. ENRIQUE A. MANALO
Secretary for Foreign Affairs
28th Meeting of the Council for Foreign and Community Relations (COFCOR) of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM)
09 May 2025, St. Kitts and Nevis
His Excellency Dr. Denzil Llewellyn Douglas, Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Trade, Industry, Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Economic Development and Investment of the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis and Chair of COFCOR,
His Excellency Dr. Vince Henderson, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Dominica, preceding Chair,
Distinguished Ministers of Foreign Affairs of CARICOM Member States, Secretary General Carla Barnett,
Excellencies, Ladies and gentlemen,
At the outset, I wish to thank the government of St. Kitts and Nevis for the excellent arrangements and hospitality extended to my delegation.
I am also deeply honored to be the first Secretary for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of the Philippines to speak before this Council.
I thank your Excellencies for welcoming me with warmth and friendship.
While 17,000 kilometers of ocean and seas separate the Philippines and the Caribbean island states, we are nevertheless close in our shared struggles - historical and contemporary – and aspirations. The thousands of Filipinos in the Caribbean help connect us in very vital ways.
Between 2023 and 2024, trade between the Philippines and CARICOM increased by nearly 200 percent and tourism arrivals from the Caribbean increased by 20 per cent. These are signals of growing ties.
Excellencies,
My visit coincides with milestones in the ties between the Philippines and a number of CARICOM members. This year, we commemorate 25 years of bilateral relations with TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO (18 April), BELIZE (04 May), SAINT KITTS AND NEVIS (11 August) and SAINT VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES (11 October).
Next year - 2026 - marks the 80th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the Philippines and HAITI, the 75th with JAMAICA, the 45th with THE BAHAMAS, and the 10th with ST. LUCIA.
I am also delighted that the Philippines and GRENADA formalized our diplomatic relations yesterday, with a signing ceremony of a Joint Communiqué between Foreign Minister Joseph Andall and myself. We now have formal diplomatic relations with all CARICOM countries.
As Asia’s first Republic and a founding Member of the United Nations, the Philippines takes to heart the UN Charter’s basic principles in our relations with states – equality, mutual respect, and respect for sovereignty, territorial integrity and international law.
We stand for the rules-based order with international law as its foundation, which guarantees international peace and preserves trust and solidarity among nations. President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. has likened this order to a “ballast” that steadies the vessel of our global community, as we navigate currents of turmoil and transformation.
Thus, at a time when the post-World War II order is experiencing dramatic shifts, the Philippines is speaking more boldly for multilateralism and a rules-based order.
This gives much meaning to my engagement with COFCOR today; for the Philippines and CARICOM have long enjoyed deep solidarity in our efforts to attain a fairer world. It is clear to the Philippines that our future is not in the hands of big powers.
More than ever, our nations are more empowered: our agency and voice much more pronounced in driving global action to address the challenges of this age.
I note four themes that represent the locus of solidarity between the Philippines and CARICOM.
First, we are vanguards of climate justice, resilience and sustainability. We rally around action and solutions in the face of climate change and rising sea levels.
As Vice Chair of the 4th UN Conference on Small Island Developing States in ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA in May last year, the Philippines supported the Antigua and Barbuda Agenda on SIDS and contributed to allow more developing countries to participate. We align with the SIDS meetings in Paris, Geneva,New York and other UN capitals.
We joined Caribbean and Pacific countries in requesting the International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) for an advisory opinion on the collective duty of states to protect and preserve the marine environment.
We have jointly worked for decades for climate justice. We had a major breakthrough in 2023, when the Fund for responding to Loss and Damage was established. I thank the members of the CARICOM Community for supporting the Philippines as member and host of the Board of the Fund. The Fund’s early operationalization is most critical to our nations.
Last October, over 70 countries and 5,000 delegates gathered in Manila for the Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (APMCDRR). It spotlighted solutions, namely: of partnerships, of technology, of good practice, from the Asia-Pacific, for the world.
Last year, the Philippines also capped its chairing of the process that advanced UN discussions on a draft instrument for the protection of persons in the event of disasters. Such a treaty is long overdue.
The Philippines will be hosting with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) the first International Conference on the Nuclear Technology for Controlling Plastic Pollution (NUTEC Plastics) this November. I invite CARICOM governments to participate in this discussion.
We can collaborate much more. The Philippines offers home-grown solutions on disaster risk reduction and management. Philippine institutions wish to work with the Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology (CIMH), based in BARBADOS, on interoperable systems for sharing real-time weather data, research findings, and hazard analytics.
Second, we are advocates of oceans governance, maritime security and maritime cooperation based on the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
The Law of the Sea underpins the rules-based maritime order through which we craft solutions to protect our marine resources, combat illegal fishing, and ensure the safety and security of our maritime domains.
Like the CARICOM nations, the Philippines has invested in making UNCLOS bodies, the ITLOS, the International Seabed Authority (ISA), and the Commission of the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS), strong, credible and relevant. Filipino and CARICOM negotiators worked side by side recently to ensure equity in the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Agreement.
The vitality of UNCLOS in CARICOM means a lot for the vitality of UNCLOS as a pillar of international law in the Asia-Pacific, and vice versa.
The 2016 Arbitral Award on the South China Sea, which is final and binding, rendered China’s claims in the South China Sea invalid. It upheld the rights and entitlements of the Philippines under UNCLOS. This decision was cited by nearly 30 states in the ITLOS proceedings on climate change. Only UNCLOS can anchor the just resolution of maritime disputes in the region.
Third, food security is a common agenda, highlighting the intersectionality of climate, biodiversity and social resilience.
Amidst climate risks, our nations are placing priority on achieving higher agricultural productivity, food sufficiency and food security.
Although the Philippines is cited by the World Food Programme for its innovative approaches, we still deal with challenges arising from global warming and disasters, mirroring those of the Carribean community.
For decades, the Philippines has hosted international institutions, including the International Rice Research Institute, that have served as centers of collaboration on agricultural research and technology.
One of these, the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center (SEAFDEC) has hosted aquaculture researchers from BELIZE, THE BAHAMAS, and GUYANA, and is open to receiving more trainees from the Caribbean.
In the context of our food security agenda, the Philippines and the Caribbean nations support the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD). The ASEAN Center for Biodiversity (ACB) based in the Philippines and the CARICOM Secretariat based in GUYANA are among the 18 regional centers in the world considered by the CBD as critical actors in meeting global biodiversity goals through science, technology and innovation. We invite CARICOM to the ASEAN Heritage Parks Forum to be held in the Philippines in 2026.
Fourth, the Philippines and Caribbean states are relentless champions of a more equitable global economic order.
We both recognize that achieving growth and equity requires changing outdated paradigms which are no longer relevant in finance and development cooperation. The SIDS advocate a multi-dimensional vulnerability index. The Bridgetown initiative seeks the reform of the development and climate finance architecture.
We are working with CARICOM members to ensure that these themes gain deeper traction in the Fourth Conference on Financing for Development in Spain in July. We are both pushing for decisions for better financing terms and fair conditions for climate vulnerable countries in the UN Climate Change Conference to be held in Brazil in November.
The Philippines, as a member of the Group of 77 and as a middle-income country transitioning into a higher income status, understands the weight of these advocacies, amidst global economic shifts and uncertainties. The experience of CARICOM members, who are high-income and middle-income but are also SIDS, attest to the need for metrics more robust than GDP, for tailor-fit development solutions and for easing debt burdens.
Just last week, the Philippines hosted a High -Level Conference on Middle Income Countries, which launched the Philippines’ chairship of a like-minded group of states committed to engage with all states, the UN, and development actors to pursue decisive approaches to push all 105 middle income countries, including SIDs, along sustainable growth trajectories.
The principle of equity is also key in global health. The Philippines will be holding the Presidency of the 78th World Health Assembly which will begin in two weeks, which will, among others, consider and adopt the consensus text for the Pandemic Treaty. During the negotiations, the Philippines and 33 other states, including a number from CELAC, worked to ensure that this instrument reflects the interests of developing countries.
Health security has also emerged as a platform for cooperation between the Philippines and the CARICOM. The visit of our Minister of Health and incoming World Health Assembly President Teodoro Herbosa to JAMAICA as well as the signing of a memorandum on health cooperation with Minister Christopher Tuffon last January underlined the prospects for collaboration on sustainable and resilient health systems.
To advance health cooperation with CARICOM, the Philippines offers to explore a framework to assist the region in building sustainable health resources including through capacity-building support for the public health system, such as through scholarships and exchanges between training institutions.
Excellencies,
Beyond health, the Philippines is eager to promote development cooperation according to needs and priorities of fellow island states.
The Philippines has long recognized the value of tapping resources and good practice across the developing world to support global development through South-South Technical Cooperation.
For example, the Philippines launched last year a program for greater engagement with our neighbors, the Pacific Island States. In this Philippine-Pacific Initiative, we are leveraging Filipino experience and expertise in support of Pacific nation-building, through focused cooperation across four areas of resilience – public health, food security, labor mobility, and disaster preparedness.
In this spirit, the Philippines is also honored to pledge [XXX] to the Caribbean Development Fund and is open to supporting CARICOM’s capacity-building initiatives.
Excellencies,
On the 26th of June, the Philippines will mark the 80th anniversary of its signing of the UN Charter. We carry the legacy of a commitment for multilateralism, having worked passionately on a vision for a United Nations that includes all, at a time when many nations and peoples were under the yoke of colonialism.
Now more than ever before, the Philippines is convinced that multilateralism, with the UN at its center, remains as the most viable approach for collective action to address global challenges. These times demand we maintain this approach. The World Bank in its recent outlook warned that “scaling back international cooperation can jeopardize progress toward a more resilient global economy.” The same, I believe, applies to global challenges such as climate change.
These times challenge the UN membership to rise to the occasion, pressing for more just and equitable outcomes, as we refashion multilateral processes to be inclusive, transparent, responsive and effective.
The Philippines has every intention to rise to the occasion, as we seek a non-permanent seat in the UN Security Council for the term 2027 to 2028, and I thank the CARICOM members that have expressed their support.
We intend to bring a depth of experience and steadfastness as a member of the Security Council. A pathfinder and bridge-builder, the Philippines has a track record of constructive engagement across the spectrum of the work of the United Nations – from human rights to environment, health and humanitarian action to development, disarmament and disaster and climate risk reduction, from peacemaking to peacekeeping to peacebuilding.
Since 1963, the Philippines has deployed over 14,000 troops to more than 21 UN missions, including in Haiti from 2004 to 2017. We have pledged to send more troops, including women peacekeepers.
On UN reform, we believe that the process of reforming the UN Security Council and revitalizing the General Assembly should be reinvigorated so that the UN remains attuned to the realities and challenges of the 21st century. The Philippines and the CARICOM members have an important role in this process.
Excellencies,
In closing, I thank COFCOR for the privilege of speaking here today. I hope my presence could serve as a bridge or gateway to more robust relations and cooperation between the Philippines, the CARICOM, and its members.
Thank you.